March 17/10 20:01 pm - Cycling (in the) News

Ricco to return from doping ban in Italian raceRiccardo Ricco is ready to race again after serving a 20-month ban for doping at the 2008 Tour de France.Universal Sports

US Open of Cycling cancelled for 2010The U.S. Open Cycling Foundation, an organization that empowers people to live a healthy lifestyle by incorporating cycling into their daily activities, today announced that it has cancelled The U.S. Open of Cycling scheduled for May 2010 in Providence, R.I. The Foundation, which cited a lack of significant corporate sponsorship for its decision to cancel this year’s professional cycling event, hopes to run the event in R.I. in May 2011. This event offers a national platform to corporations interested in promoting a healthy lifestyle and a cleaner environment. VeloNation

Bixi is big in Canada but can it recycle success in London this year?For a man who may be on the verge of revolutionising the urban cycling experience, Michel Dallaire has spent relatively little time on two wheels.

Dallaire, who designed the Bixi bicycle sharing system due to launch in London this summer, regards himself as a skiier rather than a cyclist. His longest ride was a "really painful" 36 miles, and negotiating London's traffic seems a terrifying prospect.

"The traffic in London with these huge buses, two storeys high and they drive so fast," he said. "The bicycles sometimes are just in front of these big buses and they ride 40km, 50km in the city and of course on the wrong side of the street."

But Dallaire's Bixis, the frames marked with their disinctive silver swoosh, seem unstoppable, moving on to Boston, London, Melbourne Australia and Minneapolis after its hugely successful debut in Montreal.Guardian

Bloor-Danforth bikeway plan rolls on(Toronto) City Hall is moving forward with its controversial proposal for a 24-kilometre bikeway on Bloor-Danforth, even though two of the top mayoralty candidates are expressing reservations about how Toronto's cycling network has expanded.The Globe and Mail

Pedestrians, cyclists to share new path beside renovated Riverside DriveThere will be a multi-use path built beside Riverside Drive from the QEH to Grafton Street, says the City of Charlottetown.

Meetings between the city and the province ended mid-afternoon today, said Councilor Terry Bernard, chair of Charlottetown's public works committee.

At the meeting with Ron MacKinley, minister of transportation and infrastructure renewal, the path proposal was accepted.The Guardian

Pedalling for climate changeWith Mayor Boris Johnson as a pedalling evangelist, London is becoming a cycling city. Yet, the thought of tiring hills and sweaty work gear has the majority of the city's population choosing public transport.

But things are about to change. The combination of a generation of health-obsessed baby boomers, an industry of advanced battery design in its heyday and the climate change issue put at the top of every political agenda, has made way for a new mode of transport: the electric bicycle.Sideways

BMW Launches the M-BikeWhen it comes to transportation media, BMW doesn’t seem to draw a line. First it was the four wheelers that took the auto world by storm. Next, BMW entered the world of two wheelers. The BMW K 1300 S and the BMW S 1000 RR have both received rave reviews in the market from bike experts.nitrobahn.com

VIU professor tackles monster bicycle trip to help fight cancerVancouver Island University culinary arts instructor Debbie Shore plans to cycle 260 kilometres in June as part of the Ride to Conquer Cancer. The second annual event is a two-day cycling journey through the Pacific Northwest.Canada.com

Google adds bicycle directions to Google MapsGoogle Maps started life in 2005 offering directions for drivers, added transit routes in 2007, expanded to pedestrian navigation in 2008 -- and now it covers bicycles, too.

The popular mapping site's introduction of bike directions follows a couple of years of grass-roots lobbying that led the Mountain View, Calif., firm to disclose plans for this feature last fall.

Families are asked to host two or more team members from Tuesday, June 15 through Sunday morning, June 20. Host families need only provide a place to sleep, a bathroom with shower, laundry facilities and space in the refrigerator for cyclists' meals and snacks. Cyclists are responsible for their own food and transportation during the festival.Stillwater Gazette

Cycling 10 Commandments Butterfield & Robinson knows cycling trips. The Toronto-based tour company was conceived on a bike path in Europe back in 1966. Since then, B&R has created dozens of high-quality vacations that teach travellers how to find a different kind of balance on two wheels – namely, the art of slowing down to experience the world at a peaceful pace.

In addition to their classic trips (which include programs for beginners, adventures with kids and grand journeys), this year B&R launched two self- guided bike tours.

The Citizen asked CEO Erik Blachford for his tips on pedalling perfection. Kelowna.com

Cyclists protest tax on bicyclesAbout three dozen people presented a petition with 948 signatures opposed to adding seven per cent to the cost of a bicycle to the local MLA on Monday.

Members of the Comox Valley Cycling Coalition were greeted by Don McRae as they arrived at his Fifth Street office after a rally at Simms Millennium Park that began at 10:15.Canada.com

Council Debate Over Sausalito Bicycle Tax Postponed to AprilGrowing tension over how, or even whether, Sausalito can accommodate the flood of summer tourists riding rented bicycles into the village spawned a plan by one city councilman to convert four auto parking spots to bike parking. Subsequently, there has been talk of a one-dollar tax on rental bikes to defray costs. But as the Tuesday Sausalito City Council session dragged late into the night, bikes were punted to the April 6 meeting.

The council will take up the potential conversion of four parking spots to bike parking near the ferry dock in April, said Councilman Mike Kelly. SF Streets Blog

Cyclists take on one of L.A.'s steepest hillsThere are people who sprint with the bulls in Spain, and people who plunge into icy oceans on New Year's Day.

Then there are the several dozen men and women who gathered in Echo Park on Sunday morning at the bottom of a beastly hill and looked up. Before them stretched Fargo Street, one of the city's steepest roads.LA Times